Why it's interesting

Price comparison websites have done well in the UK in recent years, but less well outside of Blighty. The reason? It's mainly down to the way in which consumers buy insurance, for example the strong broker network in France or the fact that in Spain people like the websites and then often pick up the phone to seal the deal.

But the growth by lesfurets.com will likely spark interest that the tide is turning abroad.

Even if it isn't, price comparison firms believe there is still a lot of business yet to be won, with around only a fifth of people using price comparison sites when selecting insurance products. Much to the chagrin of consumer champions, the bulk still let things like motor insurance auto-renew.

What the company said

Chief executive Matthew Donaldson said:

We’ve had a record start to our financial year and have recorded significant growth across our business.

In comparethemarket.com, this growth has been supported by a focus on driving customer loyalty and, in our insurance distribution and outsourcing (IDO) division, we continue to maintain and build successful partnerships with trusted brands.

Across all of our operations we continue to innovate and improve our digital offer for customers, and we now have over 2.4m IDO customers registered to our online self-service centre.